Kendrick Lamar: New album To Pimp A Butterfly dropped early on unsuspecting public

Well, sh*t. Kendrick Lamar has released his new album To Pimp A Butterfly on Spotify and iTunes a week early, and it couldn't be more different from Good Kid Maad City.

Presumably fearing a full leak after the track King Kunta surfaced yesterday, K-Dot put up all 16 tracks this morning, which amount to a spiralling, deeply introspective album that is sure to polarise opinion.

There are no bangers. Not a single exposed hi-hat. If you like bangers take a deep breath. Instead, To Pimp A Butterfly follows in the same vein as i and The Blacker The Berry – searing social commentary interwoven with neo-G Funk, jazz licks and wounded sax.

There isn't such an immediately obvious narrative to it as with GKMC, though a mantra starting 'I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence…' and adding a new line with each passing song serves as the backbone to the album.

In a flurry of tweets, Kendrick wrote this morning: "Yesterday. March 14th. Was a Special Day. 20 yrs. Later. Keep calm. All is well. TO PIMP A BUTTERFLY.

Musicians against Spotify

Musicians against Spotify

1/10
Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift does not what her work to be used as an 'experiment' by Spotify and believes that artists are treated unfairly. She withdrew her entire catalogue in November 2014.

Getty Images

2/10
Thom Yorke

The Radiohead frontman famously described Spotify as 'the last desperate fart of a dying corpse' in October 2013.

Getty Images

3/10
David Byrne

David Byrne of Talking Heads wrote about not understanding Spotify's claim of discovery in a Guardian op-ed. 'The inevitable result would seem to be that the internet will suck the creative content out of the whole world until nothing is left,' he said.

Dan Burn-Forti

4/10
Beck

Beck dismissed the Spotify model as 'not working' because of how little it pays musicians. He added that the 'saddest thing' about streaming is the poor sound quality - 'It's like watching Citizen Kane on your phone'.

Rex Features

5/10
The Black Keys

Dan Auerbach has described Spotify's payment to artists as 'so minuscule it's laughable'. 'If you are a bigger band that's already known and you rely on record sales for a living then it's really no place to be,' he said.

6/10
Atoms for Peace

Thom Yorke's other band refused to let Spotify stream their songs. Nigel Godrich from the group described the service as 'an equation that just doesn't work'. 'Small labels and new artists can't even keep their lights on. It's just not right,' he said.

EPA

7/10
Yannis Philippakis

The Foals singer said he would rather that somebody stole his record on vinyl than bought it or streamed it on Spotify. He described using Spotify as like going to a top class restaurant and leaving only coppers without paying the bill.

Getty Images

8/10
Aimee Mann

The US singer-songwriter has not put her music on Spotify because she does not think artists make a fair amount of money from the streaming service.

Rex Features

9/10
Grizzly Bear

The band tweeted in 2012 that Spotify provides a great service for people but does as much to help bands as 'downloading from Limewire'.

Getty Images

10/10
Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell of Drive-By Truckers has used the single word 'evil' to describe Spotify.